Prisons officer Fitzalbert Victor had been thinking about resigning from his job mere weeks before he was murdered, said one of his colleagues.
Speaking at the funeral service for the officer at Belgroves Funeral Chapel, Tacarigua, yesterday, a confidant and colleague of Victor’s, Dion Joseph, said Victor had approached him about three weeks before his death and told him that his mother, Marva Simon, wanted him to quit.
Joseph told the packed chapel, and mourners occupying tents with speakers outside the church, that he advised Victor to consider what his mother was saying and make a decision. Joseph said he too lived in Laventille and following Victor’s death he is now afraid to return home.
“It have officers who sleeping in the prison dormitory for months because they cannot go home. I can’t go home. Victor told me his mother begged him to resign. All of us are brave hearts, but he was a true lion,” Joseph said before sending a message to criminals that prisons officers will be fearless and will not be running and hiding “looking for refugee status.”
Joseph called on the communities to rally around what is right and just and asked those there to return respect and discipline to the communities they belonged to.
He warned gunmen, like those who killed Victor, at 6 am on Monday, that they too will have to die, but asked the gathering to encourage values within their communities.
As he was eulogised by his niece Reann Parris, Victor was remembered as a selfless man who exemplified love and laughter and gave his life to the service of his country. Parris added that her uncle’s motto was “death before dishonour” and that he lived by that and died because of it.
Victor, 32, had been washing his black Nissan Xtrail just after 6 am when, police said, a gunman jumped the fence and shot him seven times before fleeing.
Victor worked at the Port-of-Spain Remand Yard. He was said to be one of 15 officers marked for death by inmates because of his no-nonsense approach to his job.
Addressing the congregation earlier, Prisons Commissioner Sterling Stewart said his officers will not be operating in fear and will be committed to their jobs. He added that there was evil in high and low places plaguing the land, and law-abiding citizens must stand up to them.
“We have to stand strong against the darkness of this world. Why must this darkness plague us? We have to fix T&T, there is too much lawlessness,” Stewart said.
Speaking with the media following the service, president of the Prison Officers Association Ceron Richards said his officers have not abandoned their jobs and called on the Government to do what is necessary to protect prisons officers and by extension other arms of the protective services.
Richards also responded to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s remarks that prisons officers should continue to work as the Government continues to find ways to assist them.
“No one walked off the job. People are working and prison service is operating. What is missing is the Government doing their job. So while it is commendable for the Prime Minister to say don’t walk off the job and support the job and so on, we will want to say to the Prime Minister and Government to take a page from that statement and do their job as well.”
Asked if his officers are still contemplating striking, Richards said, “Officers will. If you have people pushed against a wall to the extent that there is no hope, you take hope away from them, then they will react. Officers are human beings just like everyone else and if the reward for doing the job is death, what do you want them to do? It will be a natural reaction. T&T has to commend these officers so far for their due diligence by continuing to come to work. So it is up to the State now to work with the prison officers.”
Prior to the funeral service there was a street procession, from the corner of Caura Royal Road along the Eastern Main Road, to Belgroves Funeral Home.
The procession included members of all arms of the Defence Force, as well as police and members of the National Operations Centre (NOC).